This invention is in the field of industrial sewing machines, more particularly, an industrial sewing machine adapted to have the components thereof operated by a computer which may store data in an initial manual operation by an operator.
Recently, in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,937, issued on June 6, 1978 there is disclosed a programmable sewing system consisting broadly of a sewing machine, a computer and a manually actuated control panel coupled to the computer for entering sewing instructions and having display means for receiving display information from the computer. The computer of this sewing system includes a RAM or read-write-memory for receiving data relative to operation of certain of the sewing machine components and for actuating operation of those components in an automatic mode of operation. However, the use of a read-write-memory has certain limitations inasmuch as it has only a limited capacity. Also, the usual read-write-memory is a volatile memory which requires that power be continually applied in order to preserve the information stored therein. A still further disadvantage is that the data stored in the read-write-memory may be inadvertently erased by maintenance personnel or by an operator due to error. Still another disadvantage is that the data stored in the computer is available only to the sewing machine to which the computer is attached.
What is required is some means to expand the memory of the sewing system in a form which does not require the continual application of power to retain a memory, which is in a more permanent form not readily susceptible of inadvertent erasure and which may be used with other sewing machines.